1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a refrigerator, and it particularly relates to a refrigerator in which a condenser thereof is in an efficient arrangement.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A recent trend has been increasing sizes of refrigerators. As a result, it is becoming more common to locate the condenser of such a refrigerator in an air duct so that the condenser is cooled by an air flow caused by a fan. A typical structure is shown in FIG. 1. Fan 101 is located in machine compartment 103. An air duct passage 105 is connected to the machine compartment 103. Wire and tube condenser 107 (simply referred to as a wire condenser hereinafter) which contains therein a refrigerant is disposed within the air duct passage 105. Cool air is guided from an intake 109 of the air duct passage 105 so as to remove heat radiated from the wire condenser 107. The heated air is then discharged to the outside through the machine compartment 103.
The cooled air flows in a direction indicated as in FIG. 1. Due to a limited space for the air duct passage 105, the wire condenser 107 and the air duct passage 105 must be configured in a straight horizontal direction.
This horizontal configuration causes the cooled air to simply flow along an upper surface and lower surface of the wire condenser 107 in the horizontal direction, instead of crossing through the wire condenser 107 which would result in a more optimum cooling efficiency. In particular, the horizontal configuration causes the cooled air to heat up in the downstream side of the air duct passage, which prevents efficient cooling of the wire condenser 107.
Referring still to FIG. 1, in order to alleviate the problem described above, a part or whole of the wire condenser 107 can be tilted (shown as a dotted line) so that the cooled air flows and crosses through the part of the wire condenser 107. However, a dead space S will be formed as a result of tilting the wire condenser 107, which increases the cross section area of the air conduct passage 105. As a result, the tilted wire condenser 105 reduces the storage space of the refrigerator.
Though the wire condenser is illustrated such that it is placed at the bottom of the refrigerator, this is only for convenience to better explain the present invention in "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS" to follow.
A heat exchanger of a refrigerator utilizing the wire condenser includes a condenser portion and an evaporator. The condenser portion is a tube condenser, which has a refrigerant flowing therein, and a wire for interposing and reinforcing the tube condenser.
Conventionally, a hot wall condenser is attached to a rear side or right and left sides of the refrigerator as shown in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B. This placement causes a problem in terms of space necessary for the wire condenser. Moreover, considering global environmental concerns, such conventional refrigerators cannot be easily and conveniently disassembled to aid in, for example, recycling. Moreover, when the wire condenser is mounted on the rear side of the refrigerator, such refrigerator cannot be built into a wall or the like in a kitchen.